For years, finish construction of homes has relied on three main types of floor coverings: wood, tile and carpet. Of all of these types of coverings, wall-to wall carpet has become ubiquitous in tract-style homes. The typical treatment to finish the area where the carpet on the floor contacts the bottom of a wall is to conceal the junction with molding, typically a wood product. In many commercial buildings, moldings include running a few inches of carpet up the lower portion of the wall. Examples of such treatments are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,503,929, 1,555,392, 2,994,905, 3,092,869, 3,475,871, and 3,514,914. A common feature of all of these treatments is that they use molding forms to support the carpet. In all the patents listed above, the molding forms cover the top of the carpet in some manner. Thus, in looking at any of these treatments described in the above mentioned patents, a length of carpet running is run up a wall, and capped by some type of cover. Although these treatments are common and present a good appearance, once they are in place, it is difficult to remove the carpet for cleaning or replacement without damaging or replacing the underlying forms.
Some installations use molding form and the carpet is simply folded over on top of the molding form and stapled in place. This type of installation is not good because it does nothing to finish the end of the carpet. Also, in this treatment, the staples tend to show, that creates a shabby appearance.